Feb 072018
 

 January 2018 desi Traveler Digest: Inviting You To Incredible India

A boat in Ganga – image by Saumy Nagayach

Hello travelers? How is the new year, which is already the old year treating you? Are you sticking to your travel plans or are you still working on your boss to sanction your leaves? Well, whatever your plans are you have my best wishes because if you will travel only then you will share your images for desi Travel digest :), like some of these fabulous travelers who have shared their images from around the world. While we had images from around the world like from Turkey, New Zealand, Dallas, Las Vegas, El Salvador and many other places for this particular digest I decided to showcase images only from India as I thought why not entice the world to travel to India more and what better way than to showcase images of our desi Travelers in the first travel digest from the first month of 2018. And if you wait till the end there is a unique Instagram account that I would like you to check out. But before that let us check out the posts that I am featuring in the January desi Traveler digest

Our first picture is from AK who goes by the name “axl_n_roses” Sarson Ke Khets on Instagram. He travels with his family and it seems they have just started the Instagram account, but looking at the feed one can easily make out that this family is going places :). AK loves to pose like King Khan in beautiful foreign locales but in the true spirit of desi  Traveler I have picked his image from our own but not from Punjab but from Rajasthan. Check out his feed by clicking on the image below where he is in on of the golden mustard fields. BTW if you are a regular on desi Traveler then you will know there are multiple posts about Mustard Fields on desi Traveler blog. Check them out and do tell me in comments where all you have seen Sarson Ke Khet?

Our second traveler is Debjani Lahiri, who calls herself “the_vagabong” and goes to some dream destinations in middle India, where she meets & greets locals and introduces us to there way of life. In the image that I am sharing she is somewhere in Khoai Haat, Sonajhuri, capturing some Sankranti celebrations in a tribal hamlet, not far from Santiniketan in West Bengal (On the Instagram map that is the nearest known place I could find )
Next, let us go on some Scuba diving to Tarkarli beach, Malavan in Sindhudurg Maharastra, with Tanuj Gupta, aka “_moksh__”  Many of us are totally unaware that there are many excellent diving places in our own country and Tarkarli is one of the best places you can go for your diving within India. How cool is that? Thanks to Tanuj even I am not tempted to try it out sometime soon.
The next image is a special image as it was shared by Jayanti Pandey, who believes there is only “one_life_to_travel” and shares this image of a Charkha or Spinning wheel and Bapu’s spectacles from Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad Gujarat. For us, desi Travelers a visit to Sabarmati Ashram is nothing short of a pilgrimage. I know this first hand as I was there in Sabarmati Ashram in December on my way to Rann Of Kutch and even after I have seen the museum I just sat under a tree and later took a stroll to the river bank.
Next let us go to the heartland of Haryana, the most misunderstood state in India and always in news for all the wrong reasons. Thankfully we have Ritu Sushila Krishan a journalist as per her bio and a proud Sophisticated Haryanvi, who goes by “BhogiJogi” on Instagram. She takes us on a colorful journey of interiors of Haryana and celebrates the life and times in desi villages. Though she has shared images from many places including one of Blue Mosque in Turkey, I just could not resist sharing this giggling woman in Red. True to the proud land of Haryana this lady is full of confidence and proud of her heritage. From Miss India to Miss World to wrestling champions to astronauts like Kalpana Chawla, these Haryanvi girls are making the nation proud. I am telling you guys there is no stopping for these girls from Haryana now and soon they will be taking over the world and I only pray that may there tribe grow.
In our next image let us go the erstwhile capital of the Holkar dynasty of Indore. I think Indore is one of the most underrated cities in India and deserves much more recognition as a travel destination as well as a business hub than we give to Indore.In this image of Rajwada Palace & Garden shared by Saumy Nagayach, we learn about the history of this city in a single image and how this palace has been burnt down many times but rose to its former glory each time. BTW the cover picture of this post is also by Saumy.
Many a time we take our day to day life for granted, totally ignoring the vibrant life and travel photo opportunities around us as we have become immune to those scenes around us. But to the eyes of a traveler visiting India from the far of lands like Germany, these things make the very essence of India. While we hope India becomes more regimental for a traveler coming from a very disciplined Germany the chaos of India may be a big relief ( this is my theory not of the photographer of this image ). But think about it is this, not the very India that we miss when we go abroad?  So I want to thank my friend and traveler Cony from Germany to regularly share images of India that she has clicked over the years.
In our next image let me introduce you once again to Saif and Faiza, the pioneers of travel podcast in India. Saif and Faiza talk to travelers and bring their stories to the world in form of a podcast. And did I tell you that I was one of the first few they talked to? While this post is about the picture that they shared on there Instagram ” The Musafir Stories“, may I also shamelessly suggest you check out my post and listen to me as I talk on the Musafir Stories about Spiti.  Coming back to the image they shared for desi Travel digest, check out>>


The world’s highest organic tea garden! The Kolukkumalai tea estate in Munnar, Kerala claims to be the world’s highest organic tea estate at the height of almost 8000 feet above sea level


In our next image traveling scientists Vijayakriti & Paresh aka ” thedoublediary” take us to Kaas Pathar or Kaas Pleatue in Maharashtra. While Kaas is well known for the millions of flowers that bloom there every hear making it the Valley of flower equivalent of Deccan Pleatue. But for all practical purposes, Kaas is much easier to reach and you can even make a day trip from big cities like Mumbai and Pune. But the reason I am sharing this image is to show the amount of hardwork that goes in creating those Instagram worthy images. Check the image closely, the photographer sitting on the dirt road, and Vijayakriti in the middle of the road with blazing sun above ( check the harsh shadows on the dirt road). It takes a lot of hard work to create these beautiful images and thanks to Vijayakriti and Paresh we got a glimpse of the behind the scenes of some of the work that goes in making those beautiful images that you see on Instagram.

If you are not aware let me share with you there are two Batesar or Bateshwars in India and both are not far from each other. While one is near Agra on the banks of Yamuna the one shared here by Akanksha Dureja is in Morena Madhya Pradesh. Once the favorite of dacoits of Chambal nobody dared to visit these temples in Bateswar. But thankfully most of the law-breaking dacoits are now out of Chambal and last heard they have joined politics and now want to become lawmakers of this country. Anyways that is beside the point, the point is that Akansha Dureja has been to the Bateswar in Morena in Madhya Pradesh was kind enough to share this image with #desiTraveler  and this picture reminded me that I have been wanting to go to both the Bateswars for last 15 years and yet I have never been to any of those.  Well I guess   Mirza Ghalib and his ghazal was meant for travelers like me……

hazāroñ ḳhvāhisheñ aisī ki har ḳhvāhish pe dam nikle

bahut nikle mire armān lekin phir bhī kam nikle

Before we go to the next 3 images let me ask you this > Is travel only the physical travel? What about all those fairy tales that teleport you into a fantasy land? What about time travel when you are reading a book or watching a movie that transports you to a different world altogether? Now let me introduce you to Bohra Sisters who are two such artists who can teleport you to another world with there art form that is hard to define. It is part animation, part music and part love for fantasy that makes these insanely incredible short videos on Instagram that you want to watch them again and again. I don’t know much about them but I do know I am a big fan of their work and if you want to see how pure talent and passion can redefine an art form then visit their Instagram account. I especially love the way they combine old Bollywood songs to the animation that they create to take you on a journey that you want to go again and again.  Just check 3 three videos I am sharing from their timeline ( without their permission or knowledge but I do hope they will not mind a fanboy sharing his happiness with the world ).  The first video is of a halwai making some Garma Garam Jalebis while the second one is of a snake charmer that quintessential symbol of India showcasing his craft in front of Hawamahal Jaipur to that magical tune of Nagin,  and the third one a very special video is for all of us especially for our kids who take food for granted. I can’t even tell you how many times I have to tell my kids about not to waste food. I wish I had seen this video earlier and I would have just shown it to my kid for the message could not be more clear. Do yourself a favor follow them on Instagram and you can thank me later. 

I hope you enjoyed reading the January 2018 desi Travel digest as much as I enjoyed compiling it and writing about each of the images/videos shared. If you would like to share your images for desi Travel digest just follow and tag my Instagram account > @desiTraveler and use #desiTraveler in your images and I will pick up my favorite images. Mind you no selfies please we are travelers 😛  With this I would like to thank each of the travelers in this edition of desi Travel digest who have been featured here and also those who have shared there images using the #desiTraveler hashtag but I was not able to share here due to time and space constraints. If you would like to see more of the images shared just go to Instagram and check for #desiTraveler to see all those wonderful images. Happy Travels 🙂 


 



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  8 Responses to “January 2018 desi Traveler Digest Crowd Sourced From Instagram”

Comments (8)
  1. I’ve been following this series since its inception but somehow missed the January Digest and O Boy, I missed it at the wrong time. It always feels great when someone appreciates your work and it means a lot when that someone is you, Prasad! Thanks so much for featuring the pictures. Also, as always, all pictures are unique and beautiful! 🙂

  2. Lovely collection 🙂

  3. Thank you for the kind words Prasad! Really enjoy seeing this lovely assortment of Instagram stories through your post!

  4. Fantastic collection. I love these curated tales and of course get to see and follow the work of so many talented people. Thanks, Prasad!

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